A poignant view of the personal side of filmmaker Ken Burns, pioneer of the “Ken Burns Effect,” the panning and zooming of still photos to create a sense of movement.

His mother died of cancer when he was 11. 

“It might be that what I’m engaged in, in an historical pursuit, is a thin layer of perhaps a thickly disguised waking of the dead…that I try to make Abraham Lincoln, and Jackie Robinson, and Louis Armstrong come alive. And it may be very obvious and very close to home who I’m actually trying to wake up.”